How to Apply Eye Cream the Right Way

You may have a fancy eye cream you love to use every single day, but do you actually know how to apply eye cream? We’re here to make sure you’re doing it right, and we’re showing you how in GIFs.

You don’t need to wait to see fine lines to start using an eye cream. Personally, I love using an eye cream day and night and see a difference when I don’t. But like everything else in skin care, using an eye cream is entirely a personal choice. If you choose to incorporate it into your skin care routine, here’s how to do it correctly.

The first step is to make sure that you have clean hands. You should be washing your hands before you start cleansing your face, and you want to make sure your hands are clean before applying products, too. If you’re using a spatula for the eye cream, make sure that it’s clean before you dip it into the jar.

Once you’re ready, take a tiny amount of eye cream. Here, I’m using the Erborian Ginseng Infusion Total Eye. How much you need depends on the consistency of the eye cream and the packaging (a jar versus a pump, for instance). Depending on the time of day or season, I switch between a lighter eye cream and a richer one. But in general, I find that about half a pea-size is enough.

Apply eye cream with your fourth finger, as it allows you to gently touch the skin. Dot the eye cream underneath your eyes and work your way up to your temples. A lot of people (including myself) have tiny lines that appear on the tops of their cheekbones when they smile, so make sure to properly target that area as well. Always start from the inside of your face and move outward so you’re moving along the texture of your skin, not working against it.

Make tiny dots on the upper side of your eyelids and put a bit above the brows as well.

Now comes the tapping. Use your fourth finger to gently tap the areas where you applied the eye cream, starting from the inside of your face and moving outwards. When you’re tapping, relax your wrists, so your finger is just coming in contact with the skin, rather than applying pressure to it.

Once you tap everything in, help your skin absorb the eye cream by using four fingers to gently tap all over the area. One useful tip I heard many times from other Korean women is to think of it as playing the piano on your skin—though again, your wrists are still relaxed so you avoid putting hard pressure on your skin. Doing this also stimulates the area without having to do an actual massage, which you might not have time for in the morning.

Now, you’re done with the eye portion of the eye cream. But there’s more: You can use the same eye cream to prevent and treat smile lines and fine lines on the forehead. Those areas are prime spots for some serious wrinkles, and chances are, you’re not paying special attention to those areas. While applying a heavy-duty anti-aging cream all over your face would help moisturize your entire face, you can easily add an extra layer of moisture to these areas by using the same eye cream you used on your eyes.

To do this, take an even smaller amount of eye cream than what you used earlier—a tiny dot is fine—and dot it along the smile lines and the middle of the forehead. For me, the middle to the top of my forehead is where I need it most because I have a round forehead and the sun always hits me there directly.

When it comes to your smile lines, stop before you hit the sides of your nostrils, since that area usually gets oily and is prone to blackheads, meaning you don’t want to add excess oil there. Gently tap with your ring finger.

Granted, you’ll use up more eye cream this way, but you’re still using a very small amount each time. Eye creams also last a while, and personally, I think that if you’re using an expensive eye cream, you might as well get the full anti-aging benefits out of it. Alternatively, you can find a good one that’s affordable—like the Innisfree Eco Science Eye Cream that both Sarah from 2hearts1Seoul and I use religiously.

Personally, after applying eye cream on my eye area, smile lines, and forehead, I take a full pea-sized amount and apply it on my neck, focusing on my throat. This is a bit extra and 100 percent optional, but the skin on your neck is very thin like your eye area and prone to dryness, and currently there’s no good technology that can remove wrinkles on your neck. So I like to give my neck area some extra nourishment.

Extra tip: In the evening, you can add a quick massage after you moisturize the eye area. In an ideal world, you’ll finish off your skin care routine with an all-over facial massage that stimulates blood flow and flushes out toxins, but the express version I like to do is to find pressure points and gently press them with my fingers.

To start, take your ring finger and place it on the skin right near the inner corners of the eye and apply pressure. After 4-5 seconds, move your finger to the outer corner of your eyes and apply pressure.

Then take your thumb and place it right underneath the start of your brow. Gently drop your head so the weight of your head falls onto the thumb, creating pressure.

Then grab the brow bone with your thumb and forefinger and apply pressure at a few points along the tip of your brows.

Lastly, place four fingers along the top of your brows and this time, gently apply pressure with your fingers.

You’re done!

*This article has been updated from its original on December 5, 2017.

+ Do you have any great tips for how to apply eye cream? Share them in the comments!